1998 -- the Santa Barbara, CA Maritime Museum Size:
N/AScale: Approx. 1 in. = 1 ft. (1/12th scale)Figures: 2 at 6 1/2 in.; 3 at 5 in.Features: Poseable
figures loading the Dana, including below-deck as demonstrated through
the use of a cross-section of the sailing ship. Also included are some
rats scuttling about the cargo of cow hide's and leather-bagged tallow.

The Problem: Exhibit builders for the Santa
Barbara Maritime Museum were creating a display telling the story of the
cattle hide and tallow trade along the central California coast in the
1800's. They wished to show both scale and some sense of dynamic human
interaction within the cross section of the Dana that they had created.

The Challenge: MIT was hired to convert
five poseable 'action-figures' into sailors/workers of the period, as
well as provide a batch of details (a few hundred 'cattle hides', several
dozen leather 'bags of tallow', and several individually sculpted 'Norway
rats'). The (3) figures at right began life as poseable Nascar race driving
stars Bill Elliot, Dale Jarrett and Mark Martin. The (2) figures below
started as poseable 'generic male' GI Joe-type guys with hazardous materials
suits and rubber gloves.

The Solution: We whittled away the driving
suits of our Nascar stars (above), adding details and character to transform
them to crusty old sailors loading the Dana. Because the figures remained
poseable they retained a very dynamic body-english.

We modified the various joints on the GI Joe figures (below)
so they could be posed in such a way as to appear to be reallycarrying this hefty load across the sand. Enhancements of the faces
and hair changed 2 'peas in a pod' to a sailor and a native American,
'the tallow-carriers', as they head to the rowboat with more tallow 'botas'.